Windows 7 slower than death. Dell Inspiron 17 R 3521

I have windows 7 on my Dell Inspiron 17R 3521 The laptop came with Windows 8 as the default software and naturally enough (my opinion) I hated it. So I installed windows 7 dual boot with ubuntu 14.04 and what I have now is a laptop that takes 5 minutes or more to get full up and running which is crazy if we take into account the specs of the laptop (or at least that's what I think)

This is the System as windows sees it.

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3537U CPU @ 2.00 Ghz 2.50 Ghz
Installed memory(RAM): 8,00 GB (7,89 GB usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System

It also has switchable graphics:

Intel(R) HD 4000
AMD Radeon (TM) HD 8XXX Series.

I thought... THOUGHT (apparently was wrong) that the tinny little bit that says i7 would make a huge difference compared to my other computers... but it didn't.

Is this delay slowness natural for my system? Is there something I can do to improve it? I don't have a million start up processes, the heavier one must be Avast antivirus.

When I'm in ubuntu... it is fast enough, and much faster than it is with windows.

Don't know if this is all the information you need to tell me what's the problem if any. Please help me make my laptop stand on its "feet".

Ty in advance.

Deus Deceit

Posted 2014-09-30T15:06:53.197

Reputation: 315

Is it a fresh install, or were you using it for a while before it started to slow down? If you hard drive is near capacity, that can kill performance, as well as any programs that automatically launch during startup. – Adam – 2014-09-30T16:09:42.153

Answers

Well it depends on which route you want to go. I would say first minimize what starts up by using MSCONFIG. I only have around 3 items checked for mine personally. If it is still slow from this you can determine if you are maxing out your memory. If so then you could increase your paging file size or physically install more memory.

If all of this seems to be good, I recently got a new SSD instead of an old HD and that increased my system speed ten fold easily. Could be a relatively easy solution but of course will cost you money. These are all just some tips of where I would try frist.

Eric F

Posted 2014-09-30T15:06:53.197

Reputation: 3 070

I've thought about the HD being the problem, but I can't really afford an SSD right now. This sucks, what made me ask the question in the first place is that I used a friends PC that had an i7 and it was fast as light. Click chrome, chrome opens, in my case, I click chrome after start up and wait 2 minutes. I shouldn't be THAT slow. My ram doesn't go above 1.5 GB after startup and I have 8 GB ram. So that's not the problem, Processor is always bellow 20% for normal tasks, so that's not the problem either. If just the HD slows my system down that much... then damn, this sucks. – Deus Deceit – 2014-09-30T15:29:56.363

Hell, I'm running a game right now and processor goes up to 34% max. Had to add this detail. – Deus Deceit – 2014-09-30T15:31:13.913

1Obviously I don't know your financial situation but you can get a 128 GB one for about 100 bucks and a 256 GB one for around 200. I went through a similar situation as you recently with my desktop. I tried reinstalling windows which would last for a few days but then the slowness would come back once everything is installed again. Got my new SSD and worlds of difference. Best purchase in quite some time. – Eric F – 2014-09-30T15:57:53.260

@EricF While a SSD is a good investment to make, taking 5 minutes for Windows to be usable is an indication of a larger problem, and while a SSD is nice, it is probably only a workaround. – Adam – 2014-09-30T16:05:06.813

Well a new hard drive is what I am aiming at mostly. Out of all components the HD is one of the biggest and often most underlooked component. It seems like his CPU is quite fast, with plenty of ram, so a harddrive is a likely cause – Eric F – 2014-09-30T16:08:52.787

You're right, the HDD is a 5400 RPM drive and it is probably a significant bottleneck, but that shouldn't make the system take 5 minutes to startup. – Adam – 2014-09-30T16:14:32.863

It most definitely can make it take 5 minutes to boot up. The drive itself could be broken down over time, faulty, or many other issues. I have seen many drives start to slow down or fail on many systems causing that long of boot up times. – Eric F – 2014-09-30T16:21:52.017

I agree with Eric, except that I want to add that if it is not completely new, and you have experienced it once having been smooth under windows 7, a reinstall might be a good thing to try before buying a SSD. (And with windows 7 you will most likely have to do it anyways when migrating the system to a new disk.)

Also as a side note, while the i7 line is the one intel markets as more "high end", the u-suffix denotes that it is an ultra low voltage edition, which is good for your battery life, but also implies that you shouldn't expect to be doing heavy number-crunching. Although this is most likely not where your problem lies.

simonra

Posted 2014-09-30T15:06:53.197

Reputation: 135